20,000 Leagues Below
by The Threat
Summary: Boukenger .Following the events from 'Skeletal Madness', 'They Came From Earth' and 'Stop Versus Go', this story will take place far below sea-level.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Boukenger" is owned by Toei Company. The character "Verne" is mine.

* * *

The Atlantic Ocean

DaiVoyager, which was restored just enough to be in it's ship-form, was floating on the ocean's surface. Upon it, there were four of the Boukengers.

"Please remind Natsuki..." Natsuki suddenly started, "Why are we here?"

"Remember that virus, which sent a signal into space?" Masumi explained her, "Part of that signal was intercepted here."

"Natsuki knows that." Natsuki replied, "But I don't understand why."

"Well, since that virus was sent by the Atlanteans, it makes perfect sense." Souta explained to her, "Not much is known about them, except that their island was located here."

"Which is also why this ocean is called the Atlantic." Masumi added, "Named after Atlantis. What else is new?"

"Still, why would that signal be intercepted?" Eiji asked, "Unless there's something here that would do that."

"They did say that Atlantis sank to the bottom." Souta suggested, "If they were as advanced as people say they were, it's possible there are some survivors."

"But why did Natsuki-tachi never search the ocean before?" Natsuki didn't understand this yet.

"Looking for a sunken island in this ocean?" Masumi questioned, "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. At least with that signal, we have an idea where to look."

"I only wish my Gou Gou Changer was restored." Eiji complained, "I hate just waiting here."

"I'm sure Makino-sensei is rushing to it." Souta assured him, "But with everything else that's damaged as well... even DaiVoyager is not completely ready for action."

"I suppose Natsuki-tachi is lucky that Chief-san and Sakura-nee-san's changers were still intact." Natsuki remarked.

"They only needed to be readjusted, so that incident with the virus won't happen again." Souta added.

"So for the moment..." Masumi sighed, "... we'll have to rely on the strength of just three of us. Red, Pink, and... Emerald."

A few miles below them, Gou Gou Marine was searching for the source of the signal.

"We should be seeing something by now." Sakura remarked.

"This deep in to the waters, even the Marine's lights aren't enough to see anything." Satoru realized.

"Thank the military for echoscopes." Sakura laughed, "I just wish SGS Europe would help us, as they're nearby."

"Well, it is more or less our fault that the Atlanteans know about us." the third person in the marine, Verne, remarked.

"So it should be our job to do something about it." Satoru finished.

"Thank you, Satoru." Verne replied.

"I guess you're right." Sakura agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

After many hours, they still didn't find anything. This made Sakura a little nervous: "I can't find it."

"Why not? It should be here." Satoru questioned.

"Well, our echoscope's not picking up anything." Sakura answered.

"What about heatseekers?" Verne asked.

"I'll try that." Sakura responded.

She switched to seeking heat. And as suspected, energy was detected underneath the ocean floor.

"There it is!" she exclaimed.

"Of course." Satoru wasn't surprised, "If there was something catching the signal, it would give away some kind of heat."

"I still wonder, though, why didn't you detect anything earlier?" Verne asked.

"This system doesn't distinguish natural underground tunnels from constructed hallways." Sakura explained.

"Whatever the case, we found it." Satoru said.

"All we need to do now is find a way in." Verne stated.

"Hang on one moment." Sakura said.

She pressed a few buttons, and after a few seconds, she found a way in: "There's a tunnel underground. We can find a way in from there."

"Do it." Satoru told her.

They sank deeper, went inside the aforementioned tunnel, all up until they were directly underneath the ruins. With whatever means were at the Marine's disposal, they made a hole, large enough for it to go through. When it did, it appeared to resurface above water.

"What just happened?" Verne wondered.

"It looks like there's air in here." Satoru said.

"This should make things easier." Sakura decided.

"I'm not so sure." Verne remarked, "If there's air here, it's limited."

"Yeah, you're right about that." Satoru agreed, "We'd better henshin into our suits, that help spare us more air."

Once they had changed into their suits, they left the marine. With their helmets they could shed some light on the area. While they were at it, Boukenpink used her Accelular to scan every piece of technology they could find.

"Hazard level, zero." Boukenpink said, "Doesn't look like this will do anyone any good."

"I only hope that any precious we find here will be useful against the Atlanteans." Boukenred stated.

"Not that we'd be allowed to use it if there is." Boukemerald reminded him.

"He's made exceptions before." Boukenred told him.

"Rarely." Boukenpink remarked.

Just as she said that, something echoed through the hallways.

"What was that?" Boukenpink wondered.

"A survivor?" Boukenred stated.

"If it's not used to strangers, how do we know if it's friendly?" Boukemerald stated.

"We don't know if it's hostile either." Boukenpink remarked.

"For now, let's just look around and do what we came here for." Boukenred told them.


	3. Chapter 3

The three advanced. When they turned around the corner, they saw what caused the noise they heard. There was some kind of half ball lying in the corridor, a sort of ornament for light-bulbs at the look of it. Closer inspection made them realize what happened.

"I see what it is." Boukenpink said, "It's wind blowing into this, that's causing the noise."

"Wind?" Boukemerald wondered, "Below water?"

"I know." Boukenpink replied, "Which must mean..."

She tried to feel where the wind came from, and spotted a hole in the wall. A small one at the bottom, though it had a grill on it, which would suggest the hole was made there on purpose.

"An air-shaft." Boukemerald noticed.

"Makes sense." Boukenred said, "There's supposed to be oxygen in the water, so maybe there's some kind of machine that's supposed to recycle it from the water and provide it for them."

"No it doesn't make sense." Boukemerald disagreed, "Why would something like this exist?"

"He's right about that." Boukenpink agreed, "This is supposed to be a sunken island, not a submarine. This wouldn't have it, unless..."

"Unless they knew in advance it was going to sink." Boukenred suggested.

"It still doesn't make any sense." Boukemerald said, "I mean, why would they equip the island with this, rather than evacuate it? Also, if they allowed themselves to be sunk with the island, then why did you meet any in space?"

"Looks like the more answers we find, the more questions are raised." Boukenpink decided.

"Wait." Boukenred decided, "If there's something here that recycles oxygen..."

"On the one hand, we could use one such things to solve environmental problems." Boukemerald suggested, "On the other hand, if the wrong person finds it, he may find a way to make it do the exact opposite."

"So, we've found our Precious." Boukenpink agreed.

"Let's set out to find it." Boukenred said, "Attack!"

He dashed forward, and Boukenpink followed, leaving Boukemerald to say: "Attack what?"

So the three of them were searching for... wherever it is that the air-supply came from. On their way, they passed something which looked like a library. Two of them passed it by without even noticing it, but Boukemerald stayed upon realizing what it was.

"Verne, what are you doing?" Boukenpink asked him.

"This looks interesting." he replied, as he entered.

The other two followed to look. They noticed that there were a lot of old scrolls and books.

"The most advanced civilisation in the world, and they kept everything on paper?" Boukenpink wondered.

"Electricity is not always reliable." Boukenred answered, "What if there's a power-shortage? Or an electro-magnetic pulse? All their knowledge could be lost."

"Not to mention the nostalgic value they hold." Boukemerald added, "You guys realize what this means?"

Both shook their heads, so Boukemerald explained: "It could mean that not all Atlanteans feel the same way about us."

"How do you figure that?" Boukenpink asked him.

"Because if they were just power-hungry, they would have gotten rid of these things long ago." Boukemerald replied, "Deciding it's better to be efficient than to be nostalgic. This shows that some among them were quite passionate. Too passionate maybe to even want to start a war with anyone."

"But that was years ago." Boukenpink remarked, "Things change."

"Things get older." Boukenred corrected her, "Names change, environments change, means change. But human nature rarely does."

"Exactly." Boukemerald agreed.

"Alright." Boukenred said, "You stay here, hopefully you'll find something important. We'll search for that recycler."

"Wouldn't want it any other way." Boukemerald replied.

And as said, they split up.

There was one thing that bothered Boukenpink: "Wait a minute. All those things may be written in an old language. How would Verne know how to read them?"

Boukenred stood still at that. Clearly he hadn't thought of that. Then he shrugged it off: "He may not understand the language, but maybe he finds some plans to their creations. If so, all he needs to do is secure them so they can be checked out later."

"If you say so." Boukenpink decided to be content with that.


	4. Chapter 4

On DaiVoyager, the other four were still waiting, impatiently, for news from their friends.

"Should Sakura-tachi not have returned by now?" Natsuki wondered.

"Depends." Souta answered, "If it was just a machine that the Atlanteans, or someone else, had left behind, there would be nothing for them to look for, but if it's Atlantis... who knows what treasure or Precious they find there."

"In which case they'll be good for hours. Days maybe." Masumi sounded angry, "Hours of discovering all of Atlantis' treasure."

Eiji remained quiet, but not because he had nothing to say about this. He saw something, not too far away from DaiVoyager. He wasn't sure of what he saw. He thought it was a whale, except that it was much too big for a whale. An island? Eiji rubbed his eyes, just to be sure he wasn't seeing things. When he looked again, it was gone. Either he was just seeing things, or he did actually see an island disappear within the blink of an eye. In other words, it's too big to be a whale, and too mobile to be an island, then what did he just see?

After a while, Boukenred and Boukenpink arrived at what looked like a machine-room. While it appeared as though it hadn't been used in years, it had this look that would suggest as though this was made hundreds of years in the future, rather than so many years in the past. In either case, Boukenpink used her Accellular to scan the area.

"Hazard level 75... 48... 27..." Boukenpink picked up too many things, "Either my Accellular is going nuts..."

"Or there's more than one Precious in here." Boukenred decided, "If this is what gave this city it's power, it's not that improbable."

"There's a lot of noise here." Boukenpink noticed, "The moment we enter this room, we'll have to shout to each other in order to be heard."

"In that case..." Boukenred suggested, "... I better check up on Emerald first. In case he tries to contact us while we're in."

Boukenpink understood this: "Alright."

"Emerald, you found anything?" he asked him.

"You can say that again." Boukemerald replied over the phone, "There are some very interesting texts and drawings they have here. Their entire history, their discoveries... too bad most of it is too technical for me to understand."

"Wait. You can read some of that?" Boukenpink sounded surprised.

"I know, it's curious, really." Boukemerald explained to her, "Many of these symbols I recognize from Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs, and the words they're supposed to represent sound a lot like ancient German, Chinese, Roman, even Native American."

"What are you saying? All of the Earth's languages are used to form their language?" Boukenred needed some clarity on that.

"Yeah." Boukemerald replied, "Too bad I don't know enough Native American to understand this."

"There's a language you don't know?" Boukenpink laughed.

"It makes sense, though." Boukemerald started, "There are so many human tribes, each and every one of them developed their own way of communicating. But for some reason, nearly all human tribes use verbal communication."

"You saying the Atlanteans taught them?" Boukenred suggested.

"Possible." Boukemerald answered, "They all learned their language, or some bit of it, and the rest was independently developed."

"But why would they start teaching them, but not finish it?" Boukenpink wondered.

"Maybe that's when the island sank." Boukenred suggested.

"It still doesn't fit." Boukenpink stated, "If that is why, then why did the survivors not keep teaching them? Why did they let them go and spread all over the world?"

"An interesting point." Boukemerald agreed.

"Alright." Boukenred decided, "Emerald, you keep searching. Pink and I will be in a very noisy room, so we may not hear you if you try to contact us."

"Understood." Boukemerald acknowledged.


	5. Chapter 5

Boukenpink takes one step into the room, but withdrew herself.

"What's the matter?" Boukenred asked her.

"The floor is unsteady." she answered.

"Unsteady?" Boukenred sounded surprised, at first, "Right. This area hasn't been used in ages."

"Better be careful." Boukenpink suggested.

With that in mind, the two set foot inside, carefully, so to not cause the floor to disappear beneath them.

Meanwhile, Boukemerald found one document after another. Most of it either used to many words he didn't know, or they were too technical. Suddenly, he found documents that didn't need translating. They had drawings, which depict coffin-shaped devices, and a group of animals, of which none looked any bit of familiar. Either they were aware of animals which palaeontologists or zoologists have yet to discover, or there's something else going on. But that wasn't the most disturbing part. When taking the drawings out, the back of the cupboard they were laid in fell down. There was a hidden compartment, wherein there was a book. At first glance, it looked more like a journal. Somebody who went through all the trouble to hide a journal in a library, which is something of a public place, ergo the one place where one would least suspect to hide such a thing. Who would go through that trouble? Who's hiding what? Needless to say that Boukemerald started reading it, at the best of his capabilities, to find out.

On the surface, Eiji shared with everyone what he saw earlier. It goes without saying that everyone was shocked to hear it.

"You're sure of this?" Souta asked.

"I'm no expert on what lives in the sea, but I know what a whale looks like." Eiji replied, "And that wasn't a whale."

Natsuki turned to Masumi: "Masumi-san thinks... Chief-tachi... may be in trouble?"

"With the Atlanteans, we never know." Masumi replied, "We'd better go down ourselves to check it out."

"But DaiVoyager is not ready for battle." Souta reminded him.

"It's a risk we'll have to take." Masumi answered, "If we don't take risks, we're not adventurers, right?"

To this, everyone agreed, so they got ready to sink down.

While this was going on, Boukemerald had read the first few passages of the journal. After that, he skipped the rest until he got to the last entry. When he read that, he dropped the journal and used his Changer to talk to Boukenred.

"Red, you better hear this." he spoke, but nobody responded.

He tried calling again, but still no response. He then remembered what he told him earlier, that he may not be able to hear him. With that in mind, Boukemerald decided to go to him instead.

In that room, Boukenred and Boukenpink had already been able to uncover two of the Precious and secure it. Still, there was something else that caused all the noise, which they've yet to find. But from the corner of their eye, they could see Boukemerald into the entrance. Clearly, he tried to tell them something, but if he spoke to them, they couldn't hear him. He did make a few gestures that suggested he wanted them to get out. Boukenred used another gesture that told him to wait. For some reason, that didn't seem right with Boukemerald, who then walked into the room, completely disregarding how unsteady the floor was. With this, he caused the floor to break. Not only did he fall through, he also caused a chain reaction that wrecked much of the machines in the room, and caused everything else to collapse as well. Boukenred and Boukenpink wanted to help their friend, but with all other things happening around them, they had no other choice but to try and climb onto the machines, as high as they could. In doing so, they managed to get on top of the rubble, but Boukemerald...


	6. Chapter 6

In the darkness, he opened his eyes. He thought of touching his helmet to switch on it's lights, but when he felt his own head instead, he realized he wasn't wearing his helmet. He also felt that when he lifted up his hand, there was something lying on it, which was removed with the move of his hand. He felt at his changer, which felt damaged. He shouted a curse in his own language, as he realized his only possible means of survival is destroyed. As Boukemerald, he had some way of breathing in the atmosphere he was in and some strength to remove some of the rocks, but as Verne his chances of survival were quite slim. Especially since he couldn't see much. He felt around. He noticed there was empty space on one side, and a pile of rocks on the other. Rocks that felt manufactured. The floor he was on before had obviously caved in. This not only cut off his one way out, it also cut off his oxygen supply. On the other hand, Atlantis is supposed to be under water, and this is beneath Atlantis, yet there's still air. How is this possible? This meant that there may be a slim chance of survival. Slim, as Verne remembered what he had discovered and what he was trying to tell the other two. This helped him make his decision, that he must search for a way out as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, DaiVoyager received a call from Boukenred: "DaiVoyager! We got a problem."

"What? Natsuki-tachi are too late?" Natsuki sounded worried.

"What is it? What did you see?" Eiji asked Boukenred.

"Part of the building just crashed, and Emerald... he was caught in it." Boukenred said.

"What?!" everyone replied in unison.

"I don't know what's worse now." Souta said, "Either Verne's death, or the fact that we're now one man short for..."

"For what?" Boukenred asked.

"I saw something." Eiji answered, "I don't know what it was, it could be anything, but this close to Atlantis... we can't be too careful."

"Red, you think that's what Emerald tried to tell us?" Boukenpink asked him.

"Could be." Boukenred answered, "Today seems to get better and better."

"Isn't Chief-tachi sad?" Natsuki started, "I mean, with Emerald-kun now..."

"We don't know that yet." Boukenred answered.

"And even if he is, we have no time to mourn." Masumi reminded her.

"Precisely." Boukenred answered, "Everyone, keep searching for that what you saw, Pink and I will try and help Emerald. New mission start. Attack!"

While Boukenred couldn't see them, the others nodded, after which they all did as they were told.


	7. Chapter 7

Verne tried to dig his way out by removing some of the rocks, but that didn't help. If anything, it just caused more rocks to fall down, reducing every chance for him to find any way out. Almost desperate, he bungled with his changer. Strangely, it helped to restore enough so he can hear something.

"Emerald, can you hear me?!" Boukenpink spoke.

"Pink." Verne replied, "My changer's broken. I don't know how I managed to re-establish this, but I may have enough time."

"Don't worry." Boukenpink assured him, "Now that we've establi..."

"Listen to me." Verne interrupted, "This place is not Atlantis."

Verne couldn't see it, but that statement shocked Boukenpink, as well as Boukenred who overheard this.

"I mean it belonged to the Atlanteans, but it's not the actual island." Verne explained, "This place was deliberately built under water, where people could experiment. But one of them did some secret ones, of which I'm..."

Statics started to take over, until there was nothing else.

"Emerald, I didn't get that last bit." Boukenpink stated, but nobody replied.

"It sounded like he tried to warn us about something." Boukenred spoke, "But what?"

"Could it have to do with what Silver saw?" Boukenpink asked.

"I hope not." Boukenred answered, "But it probably is."

"Wait a minute." Boukenpink suddenly realized something else, "Why would Emerald still be able to breath down there?"

"What do you mean?" Boukenred asked her.

"Well, didn't he say his changer's broken?" Boukenpink reminded him, "Also, there's no natural way in which he could breath down there. Unless..."

"Someone was doing secret experiments." Boukenred thought out loud, "You think he ended up there where they were conducted?"

"Not only that, Verne sounded really worried about the experiments." Boukenpink realized, "As though they're able to hurt us."

"No time to lose then." Boukenred decided, as he spoke into his Accellular, "DaiVoyager, you better hurry up."

"What's the problem, Red?" Masumi asked him.

"There's no time." Boukenred spoke, "Just come here as soon as..."

"Wow! What is that?!" Masumi shouted.

In DaiVoyager, they saw a giant monster, that appeared much like a whale on legs. The moment it saw DaiVoyager, it didn't hesitate to swim it's way to it, ready to fight.

"Can we transform?" Masumi asked.

"We can, but we won't be as strong as usual." Souta answered.

"It'll have to do." Masumi replied, "Sorry, Red, it'll have to wait."

While they're fighting the monster, neither Boukenred or Boukenpink knew what to do.

"Now what?" Boukenpink asked.

"Maybe with our weapons we create a hole in the floor and search for Emerald." Boukenred suggested.

"Are you insane?" Boukenpink asked, "What if that causes the whole base to crash down on us?"

"We can't leave Emerald down there to die either." Boukenred replied, "For now, it's the only way."

Boukenpink needed some time to think about that, but she agreed eventually.


	8. Chapter 8

DaiVoyager fought the under-water monster. Under different circumstances, they would have won, but this wasn't one of these circumstances.

"What did these Atlanteans trying to do with making this so strong?" Souta wondered.

"To think that we changed into Precious ourselves, to control a malfunctioning robot." Masumi whined.

"Come on now, did this sort of weakness ever stop us before?" Eiji reminded everyone.

"Eiji is right, Natsuki thinks." Natsuki agreed.

Meanwhile, Boukenred and Boukenpink did exactly what they said they would do. They used their weapons to create a hole in the floor, so they too can go underground to search for their comrade. They had the advantage to turn on their helmet's headlights, so they can see something in the dark. When they turned on their lights, the first thing they saw spooked them. It looked like an old skeleton. Although it showed some human characteristics, like being bipedal, had hands and everything, it didn't appear to be human at all.

"What is that?" Boukenred wondered.

"Whatever Emerald was trying to warn us about." Boukenpink realized, "We better find him."

Verne, on the other hand, went as far as he could to search for an exit. On his way, he tripped over something. This caused him to fall on a hard floor, and something else of which he wasn't sure what it felt like. In either case, it was good enough for him to shout in agony.

The other two heard the shout and went into the direction of which it came. After a little while, they arrived at a... well-lit up room.

"Good of you guys to join in." Verne remarked.

"There's light here?" Boukenpink didn't understand.

Many other things all over this base still worked, so why wouldn't this?" Verne remarked.

"You alright?" Boukenred asked him.

"Yes." Verne answered quite quickly, "This is a very interesting find here."

Verne was referring to whatever was found there. For the most part, they were high-tech electrical equipment, one of which appeared to be a container which held a humanoid fish-like creature. Otherwise, there were only more skeletons, like the one that Boukenred and Boukenpink saw before, and of which there is a resemblance to the one in the container.

"It looks like somebody tried to experiment on trying to make fish evolve into sapient beings." Verne explained.

"That's all very interesting, Verne." Boukenpink interrupted him, "But we got bigger problems."

"Oh?" Verne sounded surprised.

"DaiVoyager is fighting one of these things outside." Boukenred added.

This didn't make sense to Verne: "What are you talking about?"

"One of these things must have escaped and is now outside." Boukenpink elaborated.

"That's not possible." Verne told them, "These things can't get any bigger than the average human size."

"You're sure of that?" Boukenred asked him.

"But if that's so..." Boukenpink started, "... then what are they fighting out there?"


	9. Chapter 9

Outside, DaiVoyager was fighting a losing battle. The four controlling it hit it with... whatever they had at their disposal, which was very little. It didn't take long before the whale-like creature had DaiVoyager pinned down. It tried to get up, but it stomped it's foot on the robot, so it couldn't get up. As it was about to make it's finisher move, something hit it's head, causing it to fall down and let go of DaiVoyager. It didn't take long for everyone to realize it was the Marine who hit it.

"Red! Pink!" Souta shouted.

"Looks like we didn't come too soon." Boukenred replied.

"What about Emerald?" Natsuki wondered.

"He's fine." Boukenred replied, "But right now, we've got..."

"Is that the red guy?" a voice from the whale-like creature came.

"It must be." another one answered.

"Those voices... don't they sound familiar to you too?" Masumi asked everyone.

It was then that everyone took a closer look and realized what they were fighting from the very beginning, but it was Boukenpink who said it out loud: "It's the Jaryuu Tribe."

"They're still here?" Boukenred wasn't aware of that, "But Ryuoun is long gone."

"Yes, we know, you killed him." one of the Jaryuus answered, "That makes you our new master!"

"Your... new master?" Boukenred sounded speechless.

"Wait. That's what you came here for?" Boukenpink wondered.

"But then... why did you attack?" Eiji questioned.

"You just came out of nowhere, we just defended ourselves." one of the Jaryuus explained.

"Does that make sense to you?" Boukenpink asked Boukenred.

"They always depended on what someone else told them, and now they want to follow whoever beat their former leader." Boukenred considered, "Makes perfect sense."

"I don't trust this, Red." Masumi told him.

"Yes, and you weren't always the most trustworthy either." Boukenred reminded him.

"Does that mean you let us join you?" the Jaryuus sounded desperate.

"Jaryuus becoming Boukengers?" Souta sounded surprised, "This would make a pretty sight."

"I think we should discuss this with Mr. Voice before we make any such decision." Boukenred decided, "Jaryuu, we'll think about it. Until then, you lay low and do nothing at all."

"You got it!" the Jaryuus replied, after which their whale-like creature left the area.

"I can imagine just what Mr. Voice will say." Masumi remarked.


	10. Chapter 10

SGS Museum:

"Absolutely not!" Mr. Voice reacted to the proposal.

"Didn't I say so?" Masumi reminded everyone.

"The Jaryuu Tribe have caused us as much trouble as it is." Mr. Voice added.

"But if we let them work on our side, maybe we can teach them to collect Precious to keep them out of harm's way." Souta reasoned.

"Not to mention that the Tribe is not too bright." Sakura argued, "They're that smart to even try and trick us."

"I'd still think we shouldn't take them too lightly." Eiji said.

"We won't have to." Satoru suggested, "Indeed, we can't be too sure they won't be trying anything, but if we have them working for us, it would be easier for us to keep an eye on them."

"And eventually have the Jaryuus trust Natsuki-tachi? Like Masumi-chan and me?" Natsuki wondered.

"So we'll be going through that again." Masumi said.

"Another one to train, nother adventure." Satoru spoke.

"I see the six of you have already made up your minds about this." Mr. Voice said.

"Speaking of which, where's our seventh guy?" Souta asked.

"Last time I saw him, he went to see Makino-sensei." Sakura replied, "His changer needed repairs."

"He'll know our pain then." Eiji remarked.

"Wasn't that a few hours ago?" Masumi questioned.

"Masumi is right." Natsuki agreed, "So where's Verne-san now?"

"Do you know where he is?" Satoru asked Mr. Voice.

"Without his changer, it's hard for me to try and track him." he replied, flatly.

Verne was sitting in what appeared to be the museum's own video-room. In it, he was watching some disc, where apparently images from outer space was recorded. At some point, somebody entered the room, carrying another box filled with more of these discs.

This surprised Verne: "Exactly how much did Red and Pink shoot when they were in space?"

"Be glad that Red-kun wanted this to be recorded." the other person replied, "But tell me, what do you hope to find?"

"Nothing." was Verne's answer.

"Then why are you looking through all this?" that person asked him.

"Let's just keep it at me having a wild theory in my head which I'm trying to prove wrong." Verne answered, "That's why I hope to find nothing."

"And as always, you keep people out of the dark on what you're doing." that other person remarked.

"Just like you keep people in the dark about who you are." Verne replied, "So who are you to complain."

"I have my reasons to keep myself hidden." that other person reacted.

"I'm sure you do." Verne responded.

"We've been through this so many times before." the other person retorted.

"And you never listened any of those times." Verne bit back.

"Look!" the other person exclaimed, "The only reason I'm helping you with this is because you're the closest thing to a friend that I have. Please don't make me regret it."

"Maybe you shouldn't have allowed me to join SGS then." Verne replied.

To this, the other person didn't know what to, and left the room. With this, Verne looked back at the screen and continued his search.

"I really hope I'm wrong." he mumbled to himself.

**THE END**


End file.
